Notes: A rewrite, because I felt like it.

Your days you say they’re way too long
And your nights you can’t sleep at all (hold on)
And you’re not sure what you’re looking for
But you don’t want to no more
And you’re not sure what you’re waiting for, but don’t want to no more

But we all bleed, the same way as you do.

- Hold On, Good Charlotte

Right now, Marissa Cooper couldn’t sleep. It was three-thirty a.m., and she wasn’t even sure what was keeping her awake. She wasn’t sick, she didn’t suffer insomnia, and there wasn’t much for the seventeen-year-old to be worried about. Okay, so she was nervous; living with a completely different family in a brand new town for three months was something of a change. The Atwoods were apparently friends of her dad, but before that afternoon, Marissa hadn’t met any of them. They seemed…fine. Frank – Jimmy’s friend – was rather antisocial and had escaped back to his office as quick as he could. As for Dawn, she seemed nice, but there was something almost vague about her, like her mind had been a million miles away the whole time. Or all the time, rather. And had briefly met Trey, the eldest of the two Atwood brothers, who was here on break from college and seemed to have the same personality as his dad. As for the last member of the Atwood family – Ryan, who was Marissa’s age – she hadn’t seen him all day. Apparently he had been ‘out’, but everyone had been rather reluctant to talk about him. Marissa wondered if he was some kind of jackass, which made her silently wish her parents hadn’t had the urge to tour Europe all vacation.

Glancing out the window, Marissa saw the outlines of palm trees in the darkness and sighed softly to herself. At least this town – Newport Beach – wasn’t much different to Beverly Hills, where she had grown up and lived all her life. Shifting compulsively in the linen sheets of a ridiculously high thread count, Marissa bit her lip and tried to still her thought process. She wasn’t slightly tired, which was weird, because she was rather lazy if she did say so herself, and frequently took naps. Usually in History class, which pissed off her already bitchy teacher to no end. At the very least, Marissa wasn’t going back to that class for her senior year, which was starting in a few months’ time. She could rarely stand school, and loved the Californian summer.

Simplifying Marissa might make her sound like the typical Beverly Hills girl. Blonde hair, blue eyes, lightly tanned skin, a private school education; rich parents and more money than any of them knew how to deal with. However, as a kid, Marissa had been naturally clumsy, hence causing her to screw up sport, which was probably when the rest of the kids started disliking her. They seemed to think she was a dumbass; Marissa thought she didn’t have enough control over her long limbs. Not to mention, she was slightly anti-social from Julie and Jimmy Cooper’s idea of parenting, which was essentially tossing money in her direction and patting her on the head when Marissa got good grades. Jimmy was a constantly-working lawyer, while Julie hosted her own TV talk show – Mornings with Julie. Yep, creative title to go with it.

So Marissa didn’t have many friends in elementary school; when she started high school, sleazy jocks spent their time hitting on her and making stupid comments, which made her feel awkward because she didn’t have a clue how to respond (not that she wanted to have conversations with such slimy guys anyway) and retreated into herself a little more. Here she was on the verge of her final year of high school, and things hadn’t improved all that much on the social front. Still, Marissa would rather prefer her own company than that of the stereotypical people in her neighbourhood. She knew it sounded stuck-up, but she was quite the introvert.

Finally conceding that sleep wasn’t all that much of a possibility, Marissa pulled herself begrudgingly out of bed and went to retrieve her hairbrush. She did like her hair, if anything; it was long, blonde, and wavy. And shiny. Letting the brush run easily through her sun-highlighted locks, Marissa tried to think of a more productive way to pass the time. Infomercials weren’t an option, because if she saw one more ad for the Magic Bullet or the incredible steam iron, she was going to jump out the nearest window without hesitation. After a few minutes of needlessly brushing her hair, she decided that maybe some water would help. Doing her best to be quiet, she shuffled down the mansion’s main staircase; she was pleased with her stealthy efforts, only to hear the front doors slam shut unexpectedly. It successfully scared the living hell out of her, but she quickly made an attempt to calm herself, noticing that it was just a teenage boy. Obviously Ryan. He looked quite pissed off, which made her want to go the paranoid route and run back to her bedroom.

Ryan thought he heard someone on the stairs and noticed it was some girl he had never seen before. In a detached way, he noted that she was beautiful. Dismissing this, he next wondered whether he should be scared or frightened by her Care Bear pyjamas. Running a hand through his already messy blonde hair, he bluntly enquired, “Who the hell are you?”

Marissa scoffed indignantly at his tone. “Whoever you want me to be,” she mocked back, quietly, almost tripping on one of the final stairs. “I’m Marissa Cooper. My parents went to Europe for their vacation, so I’m here all summer.” She didn’t expect the guy to be full of optimism over the idea, and he wasn’t.

Ryan remembered his parents mentioning that the daughter of a family friend was staying here, but it had slipped his mind completely. At the moment his top priority was finding a way to get rid of his stubbornly pounding headache. He just sincerely hoped that this girl wouldn’t turn out to be painful. Getting out of bed was difficult enough for him these days, let alone adding some whiny, irritating, carbon-copy Beverly Hills chick to the equation. “I’ve never seen you before,” he finally spoke.

“I’m from Beverly Hills…our dads are friends, or something,” Marissa offered by way of explanation. Feeling a little intimidated, she went to play with the hem of her shirt, but forced herself to leave it alone.

When it became obvious that she wasn’t going anywhere, Ryan made a vain attempt at starting a conversation he didn’t necessarily want to have. “So…you’re seriously stuck here in hell for three months?” he questioned, taking note of how timid she was. Almost like she were afraid to come any closer. That was good, he supposed, if he scared her off – or if she was already shy – because that meant he didn’t have to deal with her. One less problem on his hands.

“That bad, huh?” she returned meekly, padding silently after him in the direction of the kitchen.

“Look at it this way – at least you don’t have to go to school here,” he deadpanned as he moved to switch the coffee maker on. Marissa was unable to help but be curious about the remark, but common sense told her to keep quiet about it. “Why are you up at three-thirty in the morning?”

What a question. And one she still wasn’t certain of when it came to the answer. “Why are you?” Marissa promptly replied. In response, Ryan gave her a you don’t want to know look. “I can’t sleep,” she lamely informed him after a beat of silence, a silence she was abruptly desperate to fill. Stupid social anxiety. Stupid one-time insomnia. Stupid. How she was coming to love that word. “I don’t really know why. But I met your brother,” she added optimistically. “He’s kind of…dark…like you obviously are, but I guess he’s not dumb or anything, seeing as he goes to college. Your parents are pretty cool. I think. They’re not all that talkative. And you have a really nice house, it’s slightly bigger than mine.” She paused, glancing out the window and adding, “I’ve never been to the beach in this part of SoCal. I haven’t had much of a chance to look around here yet, I’ve spent most of the day unpacking, so I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing for three whole months. My parents actually want to move here, you know, Harbor High’s supposed to be a really good school -” She seemed to realise how much she was talking, and shut herself up with difficulty. “Sorry,” she muttered, embarrassed. “Sometimes I talk to much when I’m nervous. Other times I do really weird things, like burst into tears. Though I haven’t done that in years.”

A slight smirk on his face, Ryan handed her a coffee while asking, “I make you nervous?”

That admittedly cute pink tinge to her cheeks deepened a little more. “No,” Marissa stated evenly, trying to get a hold of herself. “New people make me nervous. So you can’t sleep either?” Without waiting for a response, she headed off into the adjoining living room, making herself comfortable on the couch and switching the TV on. Even though she promised herself that she wouldn’t watch infomercials, she didn’t exactly have many options. This Ryan guy, while rather attractive, didn’t seem to be the world’s best at conversation. And she wasn’t either, so they may as well save themselves the embarrassment while they still could. Ryan observed her, noticing how she was making herself at home. And with good reason, seeing as she would be here for a few months. And the summer was a lot longer than it seemed. How Ryan was going to wisely use three months of a beautiful, shy girl living down the hallway from him he wasn’t exactly sure of yet (but he did have a few ideas…)

“What are the options?” he finally asked, startling her slightly, as he took a seat on the couch beside Marissa.

“It doesn’t look good,” she answered, her voice quieter than usual out of nervousness – or maybe it was just the time that was instinctively making her voice soft. “But I suppose you can’t expect much at this hour.” Ryan went to take the remote off of her; unsurprisingly, their fingers brushed. Much to Marissa’s confusion and slight anxiety, she had to admit that sparks flew. There seemed to be some sort of electric current there, and she had only read about that stuff in cheesy romance novels. Who would’ve thought it could happen in real life? Unfortunately, she was so confused by the whole…moment…that she didn’t have a clue how to react. She returned to Earth abruptly, the overzealous TV host’s presentation of the amazing super-blender dragging her out of her stupor. “There’s really nothing on.”

“Definitely,” Ryan said as if merely agreeing with what she had said; however, he was looking at her a certain way as she said it. Marissa could feel her face heating up again and she wished she wasn’t such a dweeb. Sure, something about this guy was definitely intimidating, but not necessarily in a bad way. And he had money, obviously, but he didn’t seem like the usual dull, designer label covered jock that Marissa always seemed to encounter. It was just that something about him. Something a little dangerous. Different.

And maybe Marissa Cooper was finally losing her mind, but she was quite certain she liked it.

Having observed everyone else all her life, Marissa had become good at analysing people. But she couldn’t get anything out of Ryan. He was definitely a closed book. Even his current expression was sealed-off and completely unreadable. It frustrated her a bit, but whatever his issues where, she conceded that they were none of her business. Unless he himself made it her business, but she doubted that. Kind of. A girl could hope after all. But Marissa had no idea how to ask things about this virtual stranger without seeming like she was prying or just snooping around.

Just as well that Ryan got to his feet, once again pulling Marissa from her reverie. “I’d better get to bed before I pass out.” She tagged along after him, not too close, and not so far that it seemed like she thought he was a lunatic.

Marissa fell asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

When Marissa shuffled into the kitchen the next morning, surprisingly well-rested and fairly hungry, the only person who was in there was Frank. He was hidden behind a newspaper, which didn’t exactly shock her. The man always seemed to be hiding in one way or another. She had already managed to get lost three times on the way to the stupid kitchen, like she wasn’t naturally clueless as it was. Ryan weighed heavy on her mind. She was so curious about him. He wasn’t like everyone else.

“Ryan’s back,” Frank finally offered. “If you’re lucky, he’ll wake up at around sundown.”

“I already met him,” Marissa informed with a shrug. At his confused look, she added, “I was going to get a drink of water just as he came in.”

“Okay.”

Well that was helpful. “I…uh…is there anything about Ryan that I should know?”

“Well, he’s an idiot,” Frank commented indifferently. Marissa hadn't really expected to be wowed by the Atwoods' parenting skills - which sounded mean seeing as she was living in their house. “Personally I would stay as far from him as humanly possible.” Of course, Ryan appeared at that moment, obviously unenthusiastic about the day in general. He was newly dressed and showered, but his hair was ruffled, like he couldn’t be bothered doing anything with it. Marissa thought it looked cute, and she reached over to re-ruffle it for him. “Aren’t you going to show Marissa around?” Frank spoke up.

Ryan gave his father – or rather, the newspaper – a bleak look. What was he supposed to show Marissa, anyway? There was nothing of interest here. Just the beaches, the pier maybe, but those were obvious things that she could surely find on her own. However, Marissa was now looking at him with these wide, hopeful blue eyes; and just like that Ryan knew it was going to be a very long summer. He had this weird feeling that he wouldn’t be able to say no to her. She had the eyes of a child, he found himself thinking. Big and innocent and this unique indigo colour. Resigned, he said, “Let’s go get breakfast.” After all, any excuse to stay away from his father was a good one.

Seth Cohen was exceptionally bored.

It was a Saturday morning in Newport Beach, the very start of summer vacation. This made it automatically boring as it was, but even with his girlfriend Summer Roberts in tow, the fact remained that there as nothing to do. Seth definitely wasn’t the surfing type. More likely, he would be found in a comic book store – far from his water polo playing arch enemies. Also known as Luke Ward (the chest-shaving water polo captain) and his idiot cronies. Right now, Seth was starving to death, or so he claimed. He and Summer were headed for the diner on the pier, their favourite. However, Summer abruptly grabbed him mere inches from the doorway.

“Oh my god, look!” the prom queen hissed.

“Look at what?” a clueless Seth responded. He was far too hungry to care. “Ryan Atwood? Big deal. Give him some wrist-slitting material and let’s grab some pancakes.” Okay, that was cruel. Kind of. But the guy had always been a complete and utter asshole to Seth back in the day and he wasn’t over it yet. Besides, everyone loved the downfall of that guy.

“That’s terrible,” Summer snapped. “No, he’s with a girl.”

Still failing to get the importance, the curly-haired teenager stated, “I haven’t seen her before.”

“She probably just moved here,” the petite brunette went on. “I mean, check out the jeans. Those only came into stores last week.” Ignoring her boyfriend’s bewildered look, “She’s rich, obviously. Maybe she moved in next door to Atwood.”

“Doesn’t that really creepy old dude live there?”

“Maybe he died,” Summer reasoned, only to wonder how the conversation had ended up at that topic.

Unable to help himself, Seth repeated, “I’m starving to death here.”

Summer rolled her eyes. “Fine.” Despite being less prominent in the popularity circles since she had started dating Seth nearly two years ago, she was always on the lookout for gossip. And this? Definitely counted as gossip. “You think we should say hi or something?”

“Huh?” Seth said dumbly, currently too preoccupied with the idea of food.

“To the new girl,” she said impatiently, resisting the urge to smack her boyfriend in the head just to catch his attention. Self-centred pain in the ass. “Last time we had a new person our age in town was like…ages ago. I can’t even remember the last one.” Seth sighed dramatically, but Summer approached Marissa, unwilling boyfriend tagging along. “Hi, I’m Summer Roberts and this is my boyfriend Cohen, Seth Cohen. Are you new here?”

“Just staying for vacation,” the blonde explained. “I’m Marissa Cooper.”

“Welcome to hell…I mean Newport,” Seth said by way of explanation, which earned him a painful elbow to the side. “Oww…”

“Don’t even think about Cohen,” Summer went on, all the while not taking the slightest notice of a clearly disinterested Ryan. “This place is really not so bad. Especially the shopping. So, where are you from?”

“Beverly Hills.”

“Really?” Summer’s eyes lit up. Not only a new person (even if it was a temporary new person), but one from someplace decent. “Which of the holiday homes are you staying in?”

“Actually, I’m staying at Ryan’s,” Marissa started, only to have some completely random jock cut in.

“You’re stuck with Atwood? Hide the sharp objects,” Jock Boy smirked.

“Luke, you’re such an ass,” Summer snapped back.

Marissa was not in the mood to deal with this. “Nice to see there’s such great people around here,” she remarked, quickly grabbing Ryan and pulling him into the diner.

“What was that?” a bewildered Ryan questioned. He had been waiting for her to wander off with the resident bitch and her geek/slave/boyfriend so he could have some time to himself, preferably to sleep. Or be unconscious, either suited him fine.

“That,” an unperturbed Marissa stated, “Was me telling them I don’t like them.”

“So, your first enemies: the prom queen, and the most popular guy in school. And on your first day. I have to say, Cooper, I’m impressed.”

“I’m guessing your equally popular?” Marissa enquired sarcastically, and he shrugged, more interested in the fact that she was still holding his hand. Obviously, she hadn’t realised it yet. It was weird in that unfamiliar way, but oddly comforting all the same, and he actually…kind of…almost liked it. Ryan Atwood feeling affection? Stop the presses. “So what was that,” she asked, sitting down at one of the booths.

“I’m pretty much the standing joke and the resident punching bag around here. I’m guessing no-one’s really talked to you yet?” Well, what a surprise that was. Frank liked to inform everyone that his son was a crack addict screw up, after all, every family had to have some kind of disgrace to its name. And Trey, despite being an introverted, self-centred, closet alcoholic loser, didn’t really care about anyone outside his special circle. And Trey himself was the only member of his special circle.

“Not really,” Marissa answered, fiddling with the strap of her bag and sensing some sensitive subject matter.

“Then ask one of my beloved relatives about it.” It was clear that Ryan wasn’t up for discussing the issue. Not to mention, he was not in the mood for explaining two years of his life to someone he barely knew; someone who wouldn’t give a damn anyway. During breakfast, Marissa noticed that he seemed to become even more subdued. Therefore, she was talking like there was no tomorrow. She was aware that he was probably wishing for her to shut up, but she was pretty much unable to stop herself.

“Not really hungry?” She pushed her own remaining pancakes around her plate in a pool of ridiculously delicious maple syrup.

“Nope.” Simple enough answer.

“Seth and Summer,” Marissa commented after a moment, “Do you know them much?”

Ryan shook his head, not intending to explain the tangled social web he was firmly and unwillingly stuck in. She’d figure it out eventually. Or quite quickly when Ryan ended up accosted by some of the more malicious Harbor kids – not Whiny Irritating Seth ‘I’m physically weaker than my girlfriend’ Cohen. “Not really. We were never in the same crowds.”

“What is your crowd?”

“I don’t have one, these days.”

“Why not?”

Ryan offered a shrug. “Maybe because delusional, very wasted me figured it would be an interesting experiment to take a whole bottle of pills. Of course, everyone thought it was a suicide attempt, so I was pretty much screwed from then on. That was four months ago.” He waited patiently for the weird look, or the ‘are you stupid?’ or the ‘er…I have to go over there now…’ But he wasn’t expecting the reply she did give him. It was cool and easy and took him aback.

“Could be worse.”

When Ryan and Marissa returned to the house after a relatively unexciting breakfast, they found a slightly pissed-off Dawn in the foyer. She had a bottle of vodka in her hands. The whole thing was both hypocritical and ironic in Ryan's opinion, seeing as Dawn was an alcoholic.

“What’s this?” she asked Ryan.

He was considering a moderately cruel remark attacking his parents’ complete lack of, well, parenting, but Marissa jumped in like the senseless thing she was. “That’s mine.” Dawn stared at her weird. “I mean, it’s not actually mine. Summer has this party tonight, but her dad’s really strict. She got me to look after that for her. I just put it in the fridge in Ryan’s room.”

Dawn appeared to mull over this excuse. “Makes sense,” she reasoned allowed before giving Marissa the bottle. “So you met Summer? She’s nice. Enough.”

“Yeah, I thought I should meet more people around here…” Marissa allowed her voice to trail off; not to make it realistic, but because she was stuck and couldn’t think of anything to tack onto the sentence.

“I’m not going to keep you. The ladies await, we’re planning Casino Night.” The doors closed behind her, leaving the two teenagers alone in the foyer. Marissa almost asked him what the hell Casino Night was, but thought better of it.

A bit suspiciously, Ryan questioned, “Why did you do that?” This was starting to get rather strange. A hot girl randomly shows up, declines the opportunity to hang out with a couple of the most popular kids in town, finds out about the random wasted experiment thing and doesn’t think he’s mad, and then to top off the morning, she rescues him from what would have been a pointless argument over the already glaringly obvious fact that Ryan’s best friend was a bottle with a high alcohol level.

“Because. I think that, if you let me, I can help you.”

For a moment, they simply stared at each other. Ryan searched her expression (how could anyone be that open?) and upon realising she was totally serious, that she genuinely wanted to help, he moved his gaze away from hers. The dark blue of Marissa’s eyes suddenly seemed very confronting, and it made him nervous. Which was odd because he didn’t get nervous. “Well…thanks,” he awkwardly acknowledged, not sure what else to say.

“I think this is yours,” she remarked dryly, pushing the bottle at him; he numbly accepted it, feeling an odd twinge over the fact that she was obviously concerned. With that, she headed back up the stairs. Mentally exhausted, Marissa had barely flopped down onto the bed to relax when her phone rang; she groaned inwardly when she saw it was her mother.

“Hi, Marissa,” Julie said in that unnaturally chipper, mother of the year tone of hers. “We’re just settling in here in Paris – there was a delay with the flight. So, how are you doing?”

Marissa shrugged even though her mother couldn’t see her. “Good.”

“Great,” Julie replied, as usual not picking up on her daughter’s lack of enthusiasm. “You should stay away from that Ryan boy, though. From what I’ve heard, he’s not the type of person I want you knowing.”

“Actually,” she lied, “I’ve only met him once. He’s not very social. But I did meet some nice people at the pier.” Well, that was half true. Ryan was anti-social and she did meet people at the pier.

“That’s good. I have to go, honey, but I’ll call you later.”

Can’t wait. “Okay, Mom. Bye.” After hanging up, Marissa switched the TV on and tuned into some kind of soap opera; she was barely paying attention to the pointless and melodramatic lives of the fictional residents.

“Oh my god! You mean…he never died of stroke on the deserted island? But…”

“Be rational! This is all a crazy hallucination!”

“NOO! You mean she’s not my daughter?! How could this have happened?”

“They did the nasty while unconscious! They found them naked as the day they were born!”

She chuckled. Daytime TV. Gotta love it. Well, except when Julie Cooper was on there. Then it could be slightly scary. Marissa’s thoughts moved to Ryan, as she had suspected they would. She didn’t know what it was about him, what exactly his problems where, but there had to be some way she could help him, right? He had to talk to her eventually. Then again, she didn’t want to interrogate him or just seem like a pain in the ass. She sighed; this was confusing her to no end. Maybe, she thought, the best course of action would just be hanging out with him when she could. Without annoying. It was obvious that he liked keeping to himself, and that meant he wouldn’t appreciate her running around after him. Should Marissa just keep to herself too? That was, unless he gave her some kind of clear sign that she wanted to hang out. At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and Marissa was startled quickly from her trance. “Come in.” Much to her surprise, Ryan entered the room. “Hi,” Marissa offered in an unintentionally awkward greeting.

“Hey. So, I was thinking – you’re in Newport Beach, but you haven’t been to the actual beach yet. If you wanted to go…” He waited, slightly nervously, for her response. And he was trying not to look anxious, but if he did, it was beyond his control. This girl was already making him feel things – unfamiliar, confusing, though altogether pleasant things – that he hadn’t felt before.

“Sure,” Marissa answered with a smile. Just like she’d hoped, he was warming up to her, if only gradually. “Just give me a few minutes to grab my stuff.”

Not long later, Ryan was playing something on his PSP, still fully dressed amongst the people on the crowded beach when Marissa caught his attention. Really caught his attention.

“…popular beach, isn’t it?” she was saying, unperturbed, as she sat down beside him.

“Yeah, I guess…” he responded absently, glancing up. Almost immediately, he found himself lost for words. “Um…wow.” He didn’t mean to sound that mindless, but he was floored.

Marissa seemed to be embarrassed, staring down at the new white bikini she was wearing. “Really?”

“Yes, definitely. Which is why I can’t stop staring.” Determined not to make himself look any stupider, Ryan focussed on the small screen of the PSP, which he was finding very difficult to concentrate on all of a sudden. She chuckled, making herself comfortable on her reclining beach chair, similar to the ones seen all down the beach. Producing a celebrity magazine after applying her sunscreen, she was unable to help but roll her eyes when she came across an article about her parents’ ‘romantic trip’.

Ryan took the opportunity to look at her properly once she had her attention on her magazine. Marissa had the kind of legs that went on forever, and just looking at her, hearing her voice, told him he was already getting addicted. Well, better than less legal options, he supposed. But she wouldn’t be interested in him, anyway. Surely she could have anyone she wanted. So Ryan attempted to focus on anything except the beautiful girl next to him. Like, the nearby water polo players, watching him suspiciously, and seemingly wondering aloud what Ryan Atwood was doing with the hot new girl. Or the fact that his GTA character had just joined the Mafia for some reason. Or that…

…or that the bikini Marissa was wearing was so maddeningly snug on her without being too tight.

Damn it! His thoughts were going in circles, starting and ending with Marissa Cooper, and no distraction was going to stop it. Other than her, of course. But that was kind of out of the question at this point in time. Why did she want to help him, anyway?

“God, I am so tired of reading about Britney Spears,” Marissa muttered, more to herself than anyone else. She noticed a bunch of jocks salivating over her nearby, and asked distastefully, “Who are they?”

“Top of the food chain, bottom of the IQ chart. That’s the water polo team.”

Not a moment later, the water polo captain-slash-king of idiocy Luke Ward approached, ignoring Ryan. (Thank god for that.) “Hey,” Luke offered, grinning mindlessly. “Haven’t seen you around.”

“No,” Marissa replied, sighing slightly and keeping her gaze on a magazine article on the stars of The Valley, “You haven’t.”

Oblivious, Luke went on, “So what are you doing with bitch boy here?”

“Waiting for him to get lost,” Marissa offered, her tone exceptionally bored. With Luke’s intelligence, it took a few seconds for him to catch on; he then glared and stormed back to his minions.

After a moment, Ryan spoke, “I can’t believe you.”

“What?” she shrugged. “I know what kind of person he is – a jackass. Stand up for yourself.”

“I do stand up for myself. And he wouldn’t have been over here if you weren’t attracting him.”

“How am I attracting him?”

“Your vibrant personality…well, actually, it’s your bikini but I wanted to boost your self-esteem a little.”

An exceptionally bored Trey was watching TV in the living room; he heard the front doors open. And laughter.

“…sure it was funny, right until he grabbed my ass!” Marissa was saying indignantly.

A teasing smirk on his face, Ryan said, “Come on, it was hilarious.” He had become more accustomed to her over the past few hours, and she had stopped getting so nervous when he looked at her a certain way (and she hadn’t even tripped over her words when she saw how good he looked without a shirt.)

“Maybe for you, perve,” she grumbled. Reaching over, Marissa ruffled his wet hair, giggling at his expression. He was very cute and a lot less dark when he had a chance to be himself. “There, now you look normal.”

“What’s normal?” Ryan enquired.

“Like you’ve been given a mild electric shock,” she replied, her lips curling into an amused smile. “Which really wouldn’t be difficult, seeing as you’re drenched.”

“Hey,” Ryan shot back, “I recall that it was your bright idea to shove me into the water.”

“That was funny,” Marissa stated.

“I’m sure.”

“We’re dripping everywhere,” she complained upon reaching a second floor hallway.

“Cooper? Dry off, and quit complaining. We have to get to this stupid fundraiser thing by five.”

“But that’s in an hour,” Marissa pointed out, fixing him with a stubborn glare. “I’m a girl, in case you haven’t noticed. It’s going to take me forever to get ready.”

Not long later they were in the courtyard of the country club. Newport residents draped in diamonds and designer clothing milled about, serenely talking about nothing between sips of champagne. “So,” Marissa said, “You do this often?”

“Usually once a week, more in summer.” Ryan glanced at the girl beside him, doing his best not to be obvious about it. However, she was wearing this pink dress that kept drawing his gaze; he had no idea what was wrong with him. Somehow he was seeing past the perfect exterior of Marissa to see someone different – someone he could get used to. Trey had remarked earlier that it seemed like something was already going on, which Ryan swiftly denied. Marissa could have anyone – why choose him? Besides, even if something did happen – which it wouldn’t – she would still be leaving at the end of summer. It wasn’t worth it anyway.

“Marissa?” Summer’s voice startled Ryan out of his thoughts. “Could I, uh, talk to you for a moment?” As the brunette dragged her off, Marissa offered Ryan an ominous look. Meanwhile, on the other side of the courtyard, Kevin Volchok was bored. His main goals in life were failing school, being a sleaze, using Ryan as a punching bag, being a sleaze…

“Hey,” he addressed Luke, who was nearest. “Who’s that?”

“The new girl. Marissa. I think she’s Atwood’s, dude,” Luke informed, somewhat hesitantly. He already had a feeling that this wouldn’t end well. Then again, if Marissa was into Ryan, she clearly liked guys who were into happy things like drugs and sleeping around.

Volchok merely gave him a look, “So what?” He approached Marissa, who was now by herself again. “Hey,” he offered.

“Hi.”

“So you’re new here?”

“Yes,” Marissa responded dully. “And I think I’ll write it on my forehead so people stop asking.”

Moving in closer, one hand resting suggestively on her hip, Volchok asked, “Maybe I could show you around properly?”

With slight difficulty, Marissa faked a smile, wondering if 99 percent of Newport guys were creeps or if she merely attracted them. “Uh, no thanks. Not interested.”

“If you’re sure…” He wandered off, leaving Marissa surprised that he’d given up so easily. Odd. He seemed like the sleazy type.

“So what did Summer want?” Ryan enquired, already knowing what Volchok’s intentions had to be. If only the guy would step in front of a bus already and do the world a favour. (Volchok, not Ryan. Though Ryan wouldn't mind driving the bus.)

With a shrug, Marissa answered, “She just wanted to apologise…she thought she came off as a bitch or something.” Within a few minutes, she was starting to feel slightly dizzy. Maybe she’d overdone it today. Gesturing to the seats near the pool, she said, “I’m just gonna sit down, okay? I feel kind of sick.”

For once, Luke Ward was right; any situation involving Kevin Volchok often didn’t end well.

A/N2: Yeah d00d, I totally fit the first three chapters of Summertime in the first part of the rewrite because I'm awesome. And for teh new people, it's not explained as clearly yet, but Ryan had drug problems for a while.

Comment. I dare you.